Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimoA bridge and tunnel officer for four and a half years, Eddie Fung has been posted to the Verrazano for the past three years, and it was his first time talking with a potential jumper.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- His co-workers describe him as soft-spoken, but Eddie Fung found his voice Monday afternoon.

Today, members of the NYPD's elite Emergency Services Unit Truck 5 gave Fung a certificate of appreciation for his efforts to talk the man down.

Fung, of Rosebank, was one of two Cantonese speakers on the bridge -- along with the NYPD 5th Precinct's Yi Huang -- trying to convince Lin Huan Qiong, 46, of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, not to jump from one the span's metal "fingers."

A bridge and tunnel officer for four and a half years, Fung has been posted to the Verrazano for the past three years, and it was his first time talking with a potential jumper.

"When I first approached him, he is ignoring me, he's not responding to anything," Fung recalled today, his voice still slightly hoarse from the experience.

Eventually, Fung learned that Lin was from Taishan village in the Guangdong province of southern China, where his father lived. The NYPD's Huang, coincidentally, also had ties to that region.

"I'm trying to get the relationship much more closer to him, make him feel comfortable," Fung said.

After an hour, Fung learned that Lin had financial problems, and that his daughter had moved away at age 14.

"He really loved his daughter. He missed her. So I focus in on this daughter, saying, 'You want to see your daughter, don't jump, or else you are never able to see her again.... If you jump, that's it, that's it, your life is ended, but who's gonna suffer more? Your family.'"

Fung credited the NYPD's hostage negotiation specialists for teaching him strategies on how to approach the conversation, and a little after 4:30 p.m., Lin agreed to come to safety. Members of ESU Truck 5, dressed in harnesses, climbed down onto the ledge and helped him up a ladder and to safety.

And at Lin's request, Fung rode along in the ambulance as it traveled to Staten Island University Hospital.

"He's a soft-spoken, humble man under normal circumstances," TBTA Capt. Robert Eckert said of Fung. "On that that day, his voice was powerful, and his voice really cut through everything else that was going on."